1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of virtual worlds, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for recording events in virtual worlds.
2. Description of Related Art
Virtual worlds have attracted more and more attention. For example, there are more and more individuals, companies, organizations and even counties joining in a virtual world such as the “Second Life.”
The virtual world provides network users with a world similar to the real world. In the virtual world, an avatar is a virtual image of a network user in the virtual environment. A network user may choose an avatar with various identities and images as his/her own virtual image, and may control the avatar with an input device such as a mouse, a keyboard and the like such that the avatar may perform various activities in the virtual world just like people do in the real world. Optionally, in the virtual world such as “Second Life,” users may write scripts by themselves and control avatars with the scripts. Similar to the real world, various events occur in the virtual world every day, such as discussions, games/competitions, sports, live concerts, business, entertainments, shows, educations, art/culture, charity/supporting groups and etc., which are held by the individuals, companies and organizations joining in the virtual world. Generally, for a particular purpose, e.g. for sharing with other users such as users who desire to join the event but are offline, or users who are not invited, and so on, the organizer of the event needs to record the event.
In the prior art, the recording of such events is made manually, and the organizer may let a particular person join the event through controlling an avatar, so as to record the event. This is similar to a cameraman in the real world. The particular person acting as the cameraman may record all visions seen by the avatar by means of a screenshot software and the like.
This manner is simple but the record effect is heavily dependent on the capability and experience of the particular person. Optionally, a plurality of particular persons should be appointed to perform the recording if it is desired to acquire scenes in different points of views. Moreover, the manner of recording manually may consume a mass of human efforts and material resources for there are a great many of events occurring in the virtual world. Therefore, how to record events efficiently is a current challenge.